This invention relates to a glass-ceramic substrate for magnetic head having excellent machine processability and surface characteristics and having a good friction characteristic with respect to a magnetic disk, and a method for manufacturing the glass-ceramic substrate.
Recent development of multimedia technology has resulted in processing of a large volume of data for image and voice. To cope with this situation, a rapid progress has been made for changing an HDD (hard disk) device which is a main external recording medium of a computer to one of a larger capacity and a higher speed. Keeping pace with this tendency, an inductive type thin film magnetic head is being replaced by a magneto-resistive head (MR head) in the field of a thin film magnetic head. Further, as a future type of magnetic head, a giant magneto-resistive head (GMR head) has become an object of attention.
In operation, the current hard disk device rotates a hard disk at a high speed and performs writing on and reading from the hard disk by means of a magnetic head which in operation is not in contact with the surface of the hard disk. In a hard disk device employing a CSS (contact start and stop) system, in order to prevent sticking of the magnetic head slider to the magnetic disk, a processing (mechanical texturing) is performed according to which a mechanical grinding is made for leaving substantially concentric circumferential machining traces on a magnetic disk substrate. There are also performed alternative texturing processings on a magnetic disk such as an etching processing, a sputtering processing and a laser processing. It is also proposed to produce crystal grains having a special crystal structure on the surface of a disk substrate and thereby obviate the above mentioned texturing processings. As to a magnetic head, the following proposals have been made for coping with the problem relating to the CSS system.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Sho 56-169264 proposes a magnetic head in which a non-contact type film is formed on a slider surface which opposes the surface of a magnetic medium for preventing sticking of the slider. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 5-182189 proposes a method for preventing sticking by forming a photo-sensitive glass layer on a rail portion of a magnetic head which contacts the surface of a magnetic disk substrate and forming a pat tern of projections and depressions on the surface of this photo-sensitive glass layer. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Sho 63-60127 discloses high strength and high thermal expansion glass-ceramics for a magnetic head substrate having .alpha.-quartz and spinel as its predominant crystal phase.
However, in the magnetic head having a non-contact type film, powder produced as a result of wear of the film is liable to cause difficulty in the sliding movement in case the film is made of a solid material while, in case the film is made of a liquid material, it is liable to cause wear and stripping off due to wear and resulting sticking to the slider with resulting decrease in efficiency.
In the magnetic head using the photo-sensitive glass, there is a problem of stripping off of the glass layer from the magnetic head. Besides, the photo-sensitive processing or etching processing must be made for forming the pattern of projections and depressions which is labor-consuming and costly. The glass-ceramics having .alpha.-quartz and spinel as its crystal phase has a high strength but its processability is poor. There is also a magnetic head material which uses an alumina-titanium-carbide sintered material but this material is very hard and its processability is poor. Moreover, this material has many voids and this reduces productivity and make it difficult to manufacture the magnetic head with this material at a low cost.
It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above described defects of the prior art and provide a glass-ceramic substrate for a magnetic head having excellent surface characteristics and a method for manufacturing the same by controlling the crystal structure and crystal grains of the crystal grown in the glass-ceramics.